HAJEE-EL-HAMIS 209 



and Denham, too, mentions having seen the rocks. We 

 commenced operations by walking round in search of a 

 likely place. Our progress was impeded by the hard, 

 sharp, vicious burr grass that gripped us with a 

 thousand tentacles. It is one of the pests of Africa, 

 and flourished here abundantly, and as its height was 

 far greater than ours, we were thankful when at length 

 we found a spot where ascent did not look wholly im- 

 practicable. As it was obviously unnegotiable with 

 boots we took them off", and prayed that the adders 

 might flee before us. After we had scaled two-thirds 

 of the height with comparative ease, foothold ceased. 

 We had already come up smooth faces of rock, but now 

 the gradient was steeper, and it looked so hazardous 

 that we decided not to attempt it. We descended, 

 therefore, put on our boots, and continued our ex- 

 ploration — picking up an occasional porcupine quill as 

 we went. 



To the south we started all over again, at a place 

 that looked so hopelessly difiicult at the bottom that 

 we concluded — reverse-wise — it must be easy at the 

 top : a very false conclusion, and we slithered, and 

 slipped, and scrambled, and struggled, and had to use 

 every part of our persons, hands, arms, feet, legs, body, 

 and head, to win our way up at all. 



Luckily for me, a sheer slope is no place to argue, 

 though had Mr Talbot known how difficult the climb 

 was going to be, he would no doubt have tried to 

 persuade me to give it up. 



Perseverance was rewarded, however, and we got to 

 the top. The summit was very narrow, and on the 

 pinnacle was a perched rock, supported at the corners 

 by small stones. Though this formation is not unusual 



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